One thing that we learned relatively quickly in Israel is that names are not always accurate. We were in Tel Aviv, but it is really Tel Aviv-Jaffa. We went to the desert earlier in the trip, but we actually went to three distinct but contiguous deserts: the Negev, the Arava, and the Judean desert. So when we say we went to the Western Wall, it's important to say exactly what we mean.
Many people associate the Western Wall with the area designated for prayer, where people often put notes in the cracks of the huge stones. That is the Western Wall, but it is not the entire Western Wall. Much of that same retaining wall of the plateau for the Second Temple is now underground, obscured by the homes and businesses of the Muslim Quarter of the Old City. But we had a chance to see the whole thing.
Muki led us on a tour of the Western Wall tunnel, describing the structures that would have been adjacent to it, like stores, foot bridges and aqueducts. To see the enormity of one 400-ton stone is to appreciate just how amazing it was to build this wall with 2000-year old technology and yet still maintain such precise building standards.
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